Transient shear and elongational behavior of blends of PET with a LCP

Blends of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) and a compatibilizer were produced by twin screw extrusion and injection molding. Transesterification and compatibilization studies were made in a torque rheometer. The morphology of the injection-molded plaques was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The blends shear growth function was measured in a cone and plate rheometer. The elongational growth function was measured in a modified rotational rheometer. Transesterification was observed in the PET/LCP/compatibilizer 95/5/0 blend. The injection-molded plaques displayed the usual “skin-core” morphology. All the blends were highly shear-thinning, even at low shear rates; thus, a zero-shear viscosity could not be calculated. The compatibilized blend had the highest shear viscosity of all the blends, confirming the strong PET/LCP interphase and the effectiveness of the compatibilizing agent. On the other hand, the 90/10/0 blend had the lowest shear viscosity. All the blends showed strain softening behavior, similar to the PET. The 90/10/0 blend had the highest elongational growth function, while the 95/5/0 had the lowest. The compatibilized blend had an intermediate behavior between both blends.     

Higher Order Derivative Characterization for Fock-Type Spaces

In this paper, we give a characterization for the Fock-type space \({\mathcal{F}_{\alpha}^{\infty}(\mathbb{C}^N)}\) in terms of higher order derivatives of f and behaviors of local integral means of those derivatives. The space \({\mathcal{F}_{\alpha}^{\infty}(\mathbb{C}^N)}\) has the closed subspace \({\mathcal{F}_{\alpha, 0}^{\infty}(\mathbb{C}^N)}\). We also characterize this subspace via higher order derivatives. As an application we study the boundedness and compactness of the extended Cesaro operator T _g on \({\mathcal{F}_{\alpha}^{\infty}(\mathbb{C}^N)}\) and \({\mathcal{F}_{\alpha, 0}^{\infty}(\mathbb{C}^N)}\).     

Enhanced emission of single quantum dot formed by interface fluctuations in photonic-crystal microcavities

We fabricated photonic-crystal (PhC) microcavities tuned to GaAs quantum dots (QDs) formed by interface fluctuation for the first time and observed the spontaneous emission enhancement in a weak coupling regime. A QD is a very thin GaAs quantum well (QW), and its interface steps exhibit quantum dot-like behavior. The emission intensity from the PhC cavity was stronger than that from the area where no PhC pattern was fabricated and the overall shape of the photoluminescence (PL) agreed with the cavity mode calculated with the three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method. The spontaneous emission enhancement factor was 10.     

X-ray fluorescence analysis of trace metal ions following a preconcentration of metal-diethyldithiocarbamate complexes by homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction

A homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction method for 36 metal ions with diethyldithiocarbamate was studied. As a result, 11 metal ions were extracted as metal-chelates. Under the experimental conditions, the maximum concentration factor was 500 (i.e., 0.1?mL of sedimented liquid phase was produced from 50 mL of aqueous phase). Moreover, the proposed method was utilized as a preconcentration method for X-ray fluorescence analysis of these metals. The recovery of each metal was ca. 97–100%. All calibration curves were linear over the range of 5.0 × 10^–7 mol L^–1 to 1.0 × 10^–5 mol L^–1. The detection limits were at the ¶10^–8 mol L^–1 levels and the relative standard deviations were below 5% (5 determinations). When the proposed method was used for the determination of contaminants in a synthetic sample (Al-based alloy model) and of components in an Au-Pd alloy, the results were satisfactory.     

Amyloid‐like Nanofibrillation of Metal‐Organic Complex Arrays Ruled by Their Precisely Designed Metal Sequences

Self‐assembly of a series of dimetallic sequences constructed on a backbone with two successive tyrosine moieties ( Fmoc‐M ¹ ‐M ² ‐CO₂H ) revealed that the resultant morphology is clearly dependent on the metal sequence, where Re‐containing sequences such as homometallic Fmoc‐Re‐Re‐CO₂H specifically afforded amyloid‐like nanofibers. These findings further allowed to achieve the fibrillation of a longer metal sequence containing three different metals ( Fmoc‐Rh‐Pt‐Re‐Re‐CO₂H ). Cyclic voltammetry of the fibrillated Fmoc‐Re‐Re‐CO₂H demonstrated that the redox activity of the metal complexes in the sequence is preserved in the nanofibrous forms.     

Lower critical solution temperature behavior of linear polymers in ionic liquids and the corresponding volume phase transition of polymer gels

Poly(benzyl methacrylate) (PBzMA) and its copolymers exhibit lower critical solution temperature (LCST)-type phase separation in common hydrophobic ionic liquids (ILs) such as 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethane sulfone)imide ([C(2)mim][NTf2]). The turbidity measurements for PBzMA/IL mixed systems reveal that the LCST-type phase separation temperatures change significantly with the changes in the chemical structures of polymers and ILs. Moreover, cross-linked PBzMA gels show reversible and discontinuous volume phase transition in [C(2)mim][NTf2] with the changes in temperature.     

Rapid screening and identification of cytochalasins by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

The cytochalasin class of fungal metabolites was analyzed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) with the aim of developing a methodology for their rapid identification in microbial extracts. ESI-MS analyses of reference cytochalasins were performed and several product ions were produced in MS/MS experiments on parent ions that are structurally characteristic. A precursor ion search was performed to detect cytochalasins in an ethyl acetate extract of fungal strain RK97-F21. Three cytochalasins were detected and one of the components was identified as epoxycytochalasin H by comparing the tandem mass spectra of the product ions with those of reference compounds. This finding was further validated by LC/MS and LC/MS/MS experiments.     

Weighted composition operator on the Fock space

We characterize the boundedness and compactness of a weighted composition operator on the Fock space. Our results use a certain integral transform. We also estimate the essential norm of a weighted compositon operator. The result could be extended to the higher-dimensional case.